Monday, July 20, 2009

If you want to have your own website, regardless of who designs it, I suggest going through FatCow! They have awesome website hosting! Check them out! If you need website design as well, give Curtis Smeltzer @ curtissmeltzer.com a try!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

I got my new DEX Yellow pages for Kosciusko County Indiana this week. I was sold on the point that I was the only business under the Website design section. As you can see, my ad is on the bottom corner of the page. There is just one thing... I'm the only business listed under website design, but DEX themselves took out a half of a page to advertise their website design service as well. It would have been nice to know if I'm wasting my time advertising in the DEX yellow pages. I didn't expect to be the only advertiser under the website design heading, but when I was told that I am the only one listed, I'd expect that to be true. BAD DEX! BAD!

Friday, July 17, 2009

The Syracuse-Wawasee Historical Museum commissioned me to redo the book: Early Wawasee Days by Eli Lilly. It is an interesting book about the Syracuse, Indiana and Lake Wawasee area and the early days of the town. There are many pictures in the book, and it is now available for purchase! Purchase Early Wawasee Days today, and give one as a gift.

At Curtis Smeltzer Graphic Design, I will do the best work I can every time. No job is too big or too small!

The Bargain Hunter, based out of Warsaw, Indiana is expanding rapidly. There will be 10 stores within the coming months. I've been workng on their customer website, Bargain Hunter Stores lately, although it's not done yet. I'm having fun with it, and the majority of it is viewable now.

I built the graphics from scratch in Photoshop, and played around with a flash version of the site before deciding that I could accomplish it in dreamweaver without flash, and still get the same look. Hopefully Google will like this version better than a flash version. I can at least tag the site and have it indexed predictably by them.

I have been studying up the S.E.O. technology that is available and I have been applying it liberally to all the websites I design and update. The website maintenance and updating business is the wave of the future. Rank well on Google, and you'll make more money, surely.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

This past week I've had a few nice new prospective new clients. The first client is The Victorian Candy Company in Shipshewana, Indiana. They will be featuring Brittle Brackle. I am designing a logo for them as well as a website, brochures, business cards, and possibly some etched glass.

The second new customer I have is dealing with ecojacks.com. At ecoJacks, based in Warsaw, Indiana, they reuse reclaimed bowling allies to make nice tables and other furniture. I found them in the Indiana Auto & RV magazine. I actually purchased some wood from them to make my new kitchen counter tops. (pictures of before and after my kitchen is complete are coming soon.

The third new customer is that I'll be doing a website for the Mug and Brush Barbershop in Milford, Indiana. I went in for a haircut, and it turns out that the owner was going to give me a call anyways, but I beat him to the punch. I'm looking forward to doing his website design, utilizing his logo which is really fun.